Resume Assistant will detect that you're writing a résumé and offer insights and suggestions culled from LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a vast repository of both résumés and job openings and lets you see how other people describe their skillsets and which skills employers are looking for.

The feature will also show job openings that are suitable for your résumé directly within Word, putting résumé writers directly in contact with recruiters.

Matching up job applicants with recruiters is LinkedIn's biggest revenue generator, and integrating Word into this business was one of the immediate priorities that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described when explaining the purchase. In addition to bolstering that recruiting business, the integration is monetized more directly, too, as Resume Assistant has some connections to paid services. Specifically, it can promote online training through LinkedIn Learning to help shore up any gaps. If you want more help than the automated suggestions can offer, LinkedIn can connect you to professional résumé writing services through its freelance marketplace.

With Word regularly used for writing résumés, there's a natural fit with LinkedIn's business. Nadella has said that growing LinkedIn's revenue is the immediate priority for Microsoft. Joining Word with the social network will help to do this; letting people apply for jobs and other services within Word cuts out the hurdle of having to use the site, and it should accordingly mean that more people actually apply for those jobs.

The Resume Assistant will become available to Office 365 users that have opted in to the Insider early access program on Thursday. Initially, it will only work in English-language Windows, to users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Microsoft will then roll it out to other Office 365 users more broadly over the next few months